"Birmingham that manufactured components for tanks. Working on a drilling machine, he found the work tedious, but it gave him time to think, including about the ideas behind Cluedo. It was during the Second World War that Pratt had the idea for a murder mystery board game. The idea for Cluedo came from his days spent playing musical concerts in country hotels where part of the evening's entertainment would have been murder mystery games. These would involve both actors and hotel guests playing the characters in a plot which involved the murder of one or more of the guests. The"
"Anthony and his wife Elva (1913-1990) began designing a murder mystery board game. The original game was called ""Murder!"", with the artwork for the board itself designed by Elva. Pratt filed his original patent application on 1 December 1944. He had spoken to a close friend, Geoffrey Bull (who had invented the board game Buccaneer), and it was Bull who introduced him to Norman Watson, managing director of games manufacturer Waddingtons. In February 1945, Pratt demonstrated the game to Watson, who immediately saw the winning formula of the game and, after a few minor modifications, decided to go ahead and"
"Pit (game) Pit is a fast-paced card game for three to seven players, designed to simulate open outcry bidding for commodities. The game was developed for Parker Brothers and first sold in 1904. It is currently being produced by Winning Moves. This popular version of the game was developed by Edgar Cayce, who would also become famous for his alleged psychic talents. The inspirations were the Chicago Board of Trade (known as 'The Pit') and the US Corn Exchange and it was likely based on the very successful game ""Gavitt's Stock Exchange"", invented in 1903 by Harry E. Gavitt of"
"Japan. English-language Scrabble English-language Scrabble is the original version of the popular word-based board game invented in 1938 by US architect Alfred Mosher Butts who based the game on the letter distribution in ""The New York Times"" in English. The Scrabble variant most popular in English is standard match play, where two players compete over a series of games. Duplicate Scrabble is not popular in English, and High score Scrabble is no longer practised. Although English is a worldwide language, the official list of allowable words and some tournament rules change between territories. The main Scrabble associations in North America"
"example, there is one challenge in which Bart has to run an obstacle course in Apu's Kwik-E-Mart store. Another one is Dr. Marvin Monroe's ""Hop, Skip and Fry"", in which Bart jumps on a floor of tiles that randomly shifts from being safe to electrifying. The others include basketball, skateboarding, a juggernaut fighting match, and a match of shoving at Moe's Tavern. The characters Kent Brockman and Marvin Monroe are the game show's commentators; after the completion of a challenge they comment on Bart's performance. The game was developed by Imagineering and published by Acclaim. It was released in 1992"
"each letter he would include in the game. He included only four ""S"" tiles so that the ability to make words plural would not make the game too easy. Butts initially called the game ""Lexiko"", but later changed the name to ""Criss Cross Words"", after considering ""It"", and began to look for a buyer. The game makers he originally contacted rejected the idea, but Butts was tenacious. Eventually, he sold the rights to entrepreneur and game-lover James Brunot, who made a few minor adjustments to the design and renamed the game ""Scrabble."" In 1948, the game was trademarked and James"
"English-language Scrabble English-language Scrabble is the original version of the popular word-based board game invented in 1938 by US architect Alfred Mosher Butts who based the game on the letter distribution in ""The New York Times"" in English. The Scrabble variant most popular in English is standard match play, where two players compete over a series of games. Duplicate Scrabble is not popular in English, and High score Scrabble is no longer practised. Although English is a worldwide language, the official list of allowable words and some tournament rules change between territories. The main Scrabble associations in North America are"
"named his project ""Lexiko"". The game design was rejected by games manufacturers such as Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley, but Butts was able to sell copies on his own, though not enough to recoup his development expenses. In 1938, he began work on a board game based on ""Lexiko"", which he called ""Criss-Cross Words"", which was eventually renamed ""Scrabble"". Lexiko Lexiko was a word game invented by Alfred Butts. It was a precursor of ""Scrabble"". The name comes from the Greek ""lexicos"", meaning of ""words."" ""Lexiko"" was played with a set of 100 square cardboard tiles, with the same letter"
"In 1948, James Brunot, a resident of Newtown, Connecticut and one of the few owners of the original Criss-Crosswords game, bought the rights to manufacture the game in exchange for granting Butts a royalty on every unit sold. Though he left most of the game (including the distribution of letters) unchanged, Brunot slightly rearranged the ""premium"" squares of the board and simplified the rules; he also changed the name of the game to ""Scrabble"", a real word which means ""to scratch frantically"". In 1949, Brunot and his family made sets in a converted former schoolhouse in Dodgingtown, a section of"
"it never achieved the commercial success of Scrabble. Alfred Mosher Butts Alfred Mosher Butts (April 13, 1899 – April 4, 1993) was an American architect, famous for inventing the board game Scrabble in 1938. Alfred Mosher Butts was born in Poughkeepsie, New York on April 13, 1899 to Allison Butts and Arrie Elizabeth Mosher. His father was a lawyer and his mother was a high school teacher. Alfred attended Poughkeepsie High School and graduated in 1917. He then graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in architecture in 1924. He was also an amateur artist, and six of"
"other players. The game can be lengthy, requiring several hours to multiple days to finish. European versions are structured so that each player has a limited ""secret mission"" objective that shortens the game. ""Risk"" was invented in 1957 by Albert Lamorisse, a French filmmaker, and went on to become one of the most popular board games in history, inspiring other popular games like ""Axis & Allies"" and ""Settlers of Catan"". The simple rules but complex interactions make it appealing to adults as well as children and families. It is still in production by Hasbro with numerous editions and variants with"
"Titanic: The Board Game Titanic: The Board Game is a board-game designed by Sandra Gentry and Valen Brost and published by Universal Games in America and was available via license by Universal Games, in Great Britain and in France between 1998 and 1999. The game revolves around the sinking of RMS ""Titanic"". An updated version, ""Titanic: The Board Game Centennial Edition"", will be released by Universal Games, and marketed by Universal Toys, Inc., NV, and the John Hansen Co., in fall of 2012. The six players take the role of six fictitious passengers aboard the RMS ""Titanic"": Moving around the"
"Skate Boardin' Skate Boardin', also known as Skateboardin' and Skate Boardin': A Radical Adventure, is a video game developed by Absolute Entertainment for the Atari 2600 and published in 1987 by Activision. It was written by Absolute co-founder David Crane, creator of the hugely successful ""Pitfall!"" It is one of the first skateboarding-based video games, preceded by at least the ""720°"" arcade game and ""Skate Rock"" for the Commodore 64, both from 1986. The player must locate and successfully negotiate thirty hidden tricks in the form of ramps and pipes within a time limit of five minutes. To save time"
"Plateau (game) Plateau is a two-player abstract strategy board game invented by Jim Albea. The game was developed over a two-year period culminating in its present form on May 12, 1986. The original name for the game was Pinnacle, but it was discovered that an older board/card game had that name, so around 1989 the name was changed to Plateau. From the 1980s through the 1990s Plateau was played at Science Fiction conventions mostly in the Southeastern United States. From the 1990s to the present, the game is played live at an online game site and via email. In 1997"
"Lexiko Lexiko was a word game invented by Alfred Butts. It was a precursor of ""Scrabble"". The name comes from the Greek ""lexicos"", meaning of ""words."" ""Lexiko"" was played with a set of 100 square cardboard tiles, with the same letter distribution later used by ""Scrabble"" (see Scrabble letter distributions), but no board. Players drew nine tiles at random, and attempted to construct words from them. In 1931, Butts wrote a paper entitled ""Study of Games."" In his paper, he described three categories of games: board, number games using playing cards or dice, and letter games (or games that fell"
"L game The L game is a simple abstract strategy board game invented by Edward de Bono. It was presented in his book ""The Five-Day Course in Thinking"" (1967). The L game is a two-player game played on a board of 4×4 squares. Each player has a 3×2 L-shaped piece, and there are two 1×1 neutral pieces (black discs in the diagram). On each turn, a player must first move their L piece, and then may optionally move one of the neutral pieces. The game is won by leaving the opponent unable to move their L piece to a new"
"the same. The Clue and Cluedo brands are well merchandised through umbrellas, books, toys, clothing and other miscellaneous items. Cluedo Cluedo (), known as Clue in North America, is a murder mystery game for three to six players that was devised by Anthony E. Pratt from Birmingham, England. The game was first manufactured by Waddingtons in the UK in 1949. Since then, it has been relaunched and updated several times, and it is currently owned and published by the American game and toy company Hasbro. The object of the game is to determine who murdered the game's victim (""Dr. Black"""
"300 copies for the 1997 Christmas season. He said the board game ""tested very well"" for Toys 'R Us, so the chain decided to carry his game at all of its locations beginning in 1998. In 2009, one million copies of the game had been sold, and it is carried by other retailers like Target and Barnes & Noble. Loaded Questions (game) Loaded Questions is a question-based board game created by Eric Poses in 1996. The game emphasizes socializing. Recommend 4-6 players (but can be played with fewer or more players) Poses said his game is ""very simple"" compared to"
"Sugar and Soybeans. The 100th anniversary edition released in 2004 included a reproduction of the original edition as well as a brand new edition that featured 8 ""modernized"" commodities. This Mean Pit Board in MotoGP Pit (game) Pit is a fast-paced card game for three to seven players, designed to simulate open outcry bidding for commodities. The game was developed for Parker Brothers and first sold in 1904. It is currently being produced by Winning Moves. This popular version of the game was developed by Edgar Cayce, who would also become famous for his alleged psychic talents. The inspirations were"
"one space onto a Grave Robber square, you do not get to steal another player's tombstone. Goth (board game) Goth: The Game of Horror Trivia, also known as Goth: A Game of Pure Gothic Horror, is a board game where progress is determined by a player's ability to answer horror-related trivia and popular culture questions. The game was invented by Matthew Nuccio, designed and developed by Design Edge Inc, and manufactured in 2002 by McNutty Games. The board is a graveyard with four plots representing each of the four player's starting points. It contains 200 double-sided trivia cards with five"
"wife, Elva Pratt (1913-1990), who had helped in designing the game, presented it to Waddingtons' executive, Norman Watson, who immediately purchased it and provided its trademark name of ""Cluedo"" (a play on ""clue"" and ""Ludo""; ""ludo"" is Latin for ""I play""). Although the patent was granted in 1947, due to post-war shortages in the UK the game was not officially launched by Waddingtons until 1949. It was simultaneously licensed to Parker Brothers in the US for publication, where it was renamed ""Clue"" along with other minor changes. There were several differences between the original game concept and that initially published"
"Alfred Mosher Butts Alfred Mosher Butts (April 13, 1899 – April 4, 1993) was an American architect, famous for inventing the board game Scrabble in 1938. Alfred Mosher Butts was born in Poughkeepsie, New York on April 13, 1899 to Allison Butts and Arrie Elizabeth Mosher. His father was a lawyer and his mother was a high school teacher. Alfred attended Poughkeepsie High School and graduated in 1917. He then graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in architecture in 1924. He was also an amateur artist, and six of his drawings were acquired by the Metropolitan Museum"
"but is used for Telegram Cards, that instruct Players on where to go, who to pay or who pays you money. Once in 1st Class, players are paid $200, and must pass through a route towards the lifeboats: After this, players may enter the lifeboats and the game is over. Titanic: The Board Game Titanic: The Board Game is a board-game designed by Sandra Gentry and Valen Brost and published by Universal Games in America and was available via license by Universal Games, in Great Britain and in France between 1998 and 1999. The game revolves around the sinking of"
"Cluedo Cluedo (), known as Clue in North America, is a murder mystery game for three to six players that was devised by Anthony E. Pratt from Birmingham, England. The game was first manufactured by Waddingtons in the UK in 1949. Since then, it has been relaunched and updated several times, and it is currently owned and published by the American game and toy company Hasbro. The object of the game is to determine who murdered the game's victim (""Dr. Black"" in the UK version and ""Mr. Boddy"" in North American versions), where the crime took place, and which weapon"
"Alice Chess Alice Chess is a chess variant invented in 1953 by V. R. Parton which employs two chessboards rather than one, and a slight (but significant) alteration to the standard rules of chess. The game is named after the main character ""Alice"" in Lewis Carroll's work ""Through the Looking-Glass"", where transport through the mirror into an alternate world is portrayed on the chessboards by the after-move transfer of chess pieces between boards A and B. This simple transfer rule is well known for causing disorientation and confusion in players new to the game, often leading to surprises and amusing"
"opponent the chance to capture some of the offending stones on the turn after an incursion, or to counterattack on the opposite side of the board. Epaminondas (game) Epaminondas is a strategy board game invented by Robert Abbott in 1975. The game is named after the Theban general Epaminondas, known for the use of phalanx strategy in combat. The concept of the phalanx is integral to the game. Epaminondas was originally introduced in Sid Sackson's ""A Gamut of Games"" as ""Crossings"". While the original version used an 8×8 checkerboard, the current game uses a 12×14 board and different rules for"
"Y (game) Y is an abstract strategy board game, first described by John Milnor in the early 1950s. The game was independently invented in 1953 by Craige Schensted and Charles Titus. It is a member of the connection game family inhabited by Hex, Havannah, TwixT, and others; it is also an early member in a long line of games Ea has developed, each game more complex but also more generalized. Y is typically played on a triangular board with hexagonal spaces; the ""official"" Y board has three points with five-connectivity instead of six-connectivity, but it is just as playable on"
"Blue and Gray (board game) Blue and Gray is a strategy board game for two players invented by Henry Busch and Arthur Jaeger in 1903. They obtained a patent for the game, but may never have published it. Blue and Gray was featured in the book ""A Gamut of Games"" (1969) by Sid Sackson. It was also featured in ""The Book of Classic Board Games"" (1991) by Klutz Press under the name Cats and Dogs. In this book, the game was ranked among the top 15 board games of all time, including checkers, backgammon, Go, and mancala. The game is"
"by 1901 had been introduced to ten states by their traveling salesman Eugene C. Allen. Haskell patented the carom game board (USD27788S) on October 26, 1897. His invention became popular in the US, then spread globally. An 1898 advertisement for the game of carroms in a Ludington journal used the slogan ""A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men."" The ad went on to say that a fascinating way of nonsense was through the best parlor game made – carroms. Catalogs of carroms products were available upon request. Justus Smith Stearns, a local businessman, bought part"
"Taliesin Master Game Taliesin Master Game is a board game invented by Ronald William Astle and distributed in 1981 by Talforce Ltd. The game was notable for being released in three versions: The Starter Game, which consisted of moving chess-like pieces on a circular board. The Master Game, which built on the Starter Game by adding an intricately designed three level playing area. The Executive version, which featured circular glass boards. The game was sold in Harrods, Hamleys, John Menzies and also through advertisements in Mensa magazine. Taliesin Master Game is played on 3 circular boards, one on top of"
"is by cartoonist Gary Baseman. The board is laid out as a circuit, consisting of different color spaces. Each color corresponds to a question card category. Purple ""Planet Cranium"" spaces give the team their choice of category. Cranium (board game) Cranium is a party game created by Whit Alexander and Richard Tait in 1998, after Richard spent a weekend playing games with another family and recognized the need for a game involving a variety of skills. Richard left his job at Microsoft, convincing his friend and co-worker Whit Alexander to join him in the creation of ""Cranium"". ""Cranium"", manufactured by"
"Breakthrough (board game) Breakthrough is an abstract strategy board game invented by Dan Troyka in 2000 and made available as a Zillions of Games file (ZRF). It won the 2001 8x8 Game Design Competition, even though the game was originally played on a 7x7 board, as it is trivially extensible to larger board sizes. The board is initially set up as shown on the right. To play the game on a different-sized board, just fill the two front and two back rows with pieces; the board need not be square. Choose a player to go first; then play alternates, with"
"of Art. In the early 1930s after working as an architect but now unemployed, Butts set out to design a board game. He studied existing games and found that games fell into three categories: number games such as dice and bingo; move games such as chess and checkers; and word games such as anagrams. Butts was a resident of Jackson Heights, New York, and it was there that the game of Scrabble was invented. To memorialize Butts's importance to the invention of the game, there is a street sign at 35th Avenue and 81st Street in Jackson Heights that is"